Association of Tumor-Localizated TLS with Gene Expression Profile in Glioma Samples

Group 21

Introduction

Study: “Spatial immune profiling defines a subset of human gliomas with functional tertiary lymphoid structures”[1]

[1] Pinar Cakmak, Lun JH, Singh A, et al. Spatial immune profiling defines a subset of human gliomas with functional tertiary lymphoid structures. Immunity. 2025;58(11):2847-2863.e8. [doi]

Materials:

  • Metadata: GEO (NCBI) - GSE271059[2]

    • IDH_status

    • TLS_status

    • Localisation

    • Primary_or_Recurrent

    • Age

    • Gender

  • Raw data: gene expression count matrix (genes × samples)




[2] GEO series GSE271059 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE271059

Methods

[3] Ayers et al., 2017 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28650338/

Results

Impact of TLS status on transcriptional signatures

  • TLS status does not strongly separate the samples

  • TLS group contains highly distinct outliers

Results

Impact of IDH status on transcriptional signatures

  • Clear and distinct separation of samples by IDH status

  • Outlier subsets exist

Results

TLS effect on gene expression

  • Each point = one gene (TLS+ vs TLS−)
  • Several genes are significantly associated with TLS status (q < 0.05)
  • Some genes higher in TLS+, others in controls
    → TLS status is linked to differences in gene expression

Results

GEP score by TLS status

  • Each point = one tumor sample
  • GEP score (18-gene immune signature)
  • Median GEP score is higher in TLS+ tumors than in controls

Results

  • Three genes were found to be TLS-significant

Discussion